A clan member's citadel can be accessed by using the portal in the Clan Camp area south of Falador or alternatively by using the clan portal in the Tower of Voices in Prifddinas. There are dozens of hotspots for players and their Clans to make their own. Of these hotspots, a maximum of seven are skill-related, allowing players and their clans to train skills together. Although the experience received will be slightly lower than would be received on the surface of RuneScape, skilling there will contribute to the maintenance of the citadel, allowing players and clans to upgrade it from tier one to tier seven. As the citadel gets upgraded, players and clans gain access to better customization options and even more hotspots. Contributing enough to the weekly upkeep of the citadel gives players access to Bonus experience in any skill for which the citadel has a skill plot. Clan Citadel guards walk around and guard the main gate.

The clan citadels were originally the flying fortresses of the aviansie, so Armadyl would have had his throne up there somewhere. Since the magic of the citadels is Armadyl's, it makes sense that the avatars are made by Armadyl too! Hope that makes sense.

Each clan can gather in many areas of their Clan Citadel – in meeting rooms, a senate, a party room – but the centrepiece is the clan battlefield. This offers players and their clan a large area to battle together or face-off against other clans, and a full-blown Battlefield Editor to create combat situations or minigames.

When Free-to-play players enter the teleport portal, they find themselves in a cutscene showing them around a completed clan citadel.

Citadels were first introduced in a teaser on the RuneScape homepage. In the news post announcing the impending update, The RuneScape Team stated that the update will be members only and claimed that Clan Citadels would be very customizable and would be tiered. It also showed that clan members would have to collect resources to build them.

Clan Citadels are castles in the sky that are clan homes. Resources collected by clan members can be spent to upgrade and customise the citadel. There are meeting rooms, party rooms, and clan battlefields, which host combat games. Members of other clans may visit different citadels, although based on the security settings they may be restricted.

To open a citadel, five clanmates with membership must go to the Clan Camp and talk to Avalani by the portal. The players will take part in a ritual that opens a citadel for your clan in your logo and colours (Be sure to dismiss any followers before beginning or the ritual will not begin). To reach the citadel, any clan member with membership can use the portal to teleport there. Within the citadel, there are certain places to which you can freely teleport by using the map.

If a clan ever falls below four members, the citadel can no longer be accessed. The clock will continue to tick and use resources for upkeep.

If not enough players visit the citadel and it degrades it takes 5 FULL clan members to reopen the clan citadel. These members need to try to enter the citadel, the citadel will be opened when the fifth player attempts to join.

Citadels have a weekly upkeep cost that must be paid in resources, gathered by working at skill plots. If these resources are not collected and the upkeep is not paid, the citadel may downgrade. There are no requirements to work on the plots. If the citadel is maintained and if enough clan members visit the citadel, the citadel may be allowed to upgrade. There are seven tiers, each offering more in layout and customisation.

Clans can choose whether or not they wish to allow people who are not in their clan to enter their citadel by changing the 'Guest access to Citadel' option in the Clan Settings interface. They can specify whether to allow guests just onto the island (ie not though the gate), the citadel and the island, or the keep, citadel and island. If this option is set to 'None' while there are still guests in the citadel, they will receive a 3 minute timer before being kicked from the citadel. Guests also cannot access the citadel interface, which prevents them from using the teleport system to move around the citadel.

To kick (and ban) individual people from the citadel, their name must be added to the Clan ban list. They will receive a 3-minute timeout if they are currently in the citadel before being kicked. They will be unable to re-enter.

There are four tabs that can be used to change around the citadel. To access the interface, click on the castle icon next to the minimap while inside the citadel. The third tab requires a PIN to access. There is also a button to access the Job list interface (see below), which also requires a PIN to access.

Across all interfaces, the following information is displayed:

Build tick - This is the amount of time left before the citadel next updates. This is when all changes to the layout and cost of the citadel occur, and also when the citadel dilapidates if there are not enough members. It starts with a value of 6d 23h 59m.

Visitor Count - This value counts the number of eligible clan members that have visited the citadel since the last Build Tick. Five visitors are required for the upkeep of all citadels. However to upgrade the citadel, an amount that increases with each tier is required. To find the number of visitors you need to upgrade, multiply your current tier by 5. For example to upgrade to a tier 4 citadel, you must have a tier 3 citadel, 5 x 3 = 15 visitors. If the visitor count is red, it is not yet high enough to upgrade the citadel.

With the map tab, you can view the layout of the citadel, teleport instantly to the various available plots and features, and (if granted permission) change the layout. In the centre of the Citadel Management Interface are the day and night options. Changing these will not update the citadel instantly; it waits until the next build tick, which is weekly. All the layouts contain the same features, but in different locations.

As the citadel upgrades, the layout will contain more hotspots and resource-gathering skill plots.

The quantity of hotspots above refers only to certain individual hotspots. The customisation section below contains additional information and links to other hotspot choice articles.

Any changes to the citadel layout can be reverted prior to the next build tick by clicking the Revert button. On the map tab, there are two buttons, one with a sun and one with a moon. These can be used to change day and night in the citadel, but like the rest of the layout it will not change until the next build tick.

The building tab is used to view and upgrade the structures inside the citadel. There are four tabs inside the building tab, which do the following:

Upkeep - Shows the cost (in resources) needed to maintain the structure. If this cost is not met, the structure may dilapidate.

Upgrade - Shows the cost for upgrading the structure, or what it would cost to build it. Clan members with the upgrade permissions may upgrade the citadel, or cancel an upgrade. Like everything else, it will not change until the build tick. The number of structures that may be upgraded per tick is as follows:

Your clan can upgrade the keep (this will increase your citadel's tier) AND

Your clan can upgrade the storehouse OR the battlefield AND

Your clan can upgrade/build up to two skill plots

Your clan can build or replace up to three customisation features - small cosmetic changes to your Citadel

Downgrade - Shows what the cost of upkeep would be if it is downgraded. Clan members with the downgrade permission may downgrade structures and skill plots.

Information - Allows structures or skill plots to be moved by members with permissions. Also contains a button to the job list.

To build a skill plot: select the type, click the upgrade tab, click build, and choose which location to build it on.

The customisation tab allows clan leaders to customise individual structures or the citadel itself. Three customisations can take place per build tick. To view the customisations, click on a hotspot in the interface. It will display the resource cost to build the feature.

For most structures, there are Basic, Medium and Grand versions. There are no requirements to build these besides the resources needed to upgrade them. In addition, the structure can be upgraded to the Grand version without first having to upgrade it through the lower levels.

Some structures require multiple upgrades to different parts of it, such as topiaries, which require a hedge and base separately.

Within the interface, there are three colours on the bar. Red shows the amount of resources used to maintain the citadel. If the bar is red only, it means that there are not enough of that type of resource and the citadel is in danger of dilapidation. Yellow shows the amount of resources used to build structures and plots in the next tick. Green shows the amount of resources not being used. Most of these can be saved, although the amount saved is dependent on the resource and the size of the storehouse.

The tool-tips display amounts of resources for various counts, as follows:

Total: amount of free resources available towards the next build tick, at the current time

Upkeep: amount of resources required on the next build tick to prevent dilapidation

Upgrades: total amount of resources to complete all upgrades on the next tick. This has been changed from displaying the full upgrade cost

The job list interface displays, at a minimum, maintenance jobs for upkeep for the next build tick. It also displays manually entered downgrade, upgrade, and customisation jobs. Clicking on an individual job gives a report of the resources it needs, including how much has already been paid and how much is to be paid at the next tick. There is also a button to switch back to the citadel management interface. It is separated into three tabs:

Downgrades - Shows all buildings that have been marked for downgrade within the citadel

Upkeep - Shows the upkeep cost of all the buildings currently in the citadel, and whether or not the costs have been met. The order they are shown on the screen is the order of their priority (i.e., resources will first be used for the upkeep of the first building on the list, then the second, etc.).

Upgrades - Shows all the buildings that have been marked for upgrade within the citadel, and whether or not the upgrade costs have been met. It also displays any customisations under way.

The job list's downgrade interface

The job list interface of the clan citadel

The job list's upgrade interface. An example of bars being paid for last week in blue, this week in green, wildcard (summon) in yellow, and yet to be paid in red.

The Build tick refers to the time at which scheduled actions (like build orders or day/night changes) take place in the citadel. It occurs generally every week.

To move the build tick to a better time, clan leaders may talk to the Quartermaster to push back the build tick. The time for the new tick is set to exactly seven days from the time the move is requested. Moving the tick costs the same amount as the total upkeep of the citadel for a week, essentially doubling the cost of upkeep for that tick.

Six hours before the build tick and later, clan admins are not able to make any changes to the citadel. Only the clan owner may do so.

Before the build tick, members with the construction permission may mark up to four buildings for construction and three customisations for upgrading, and members with the downgrading permission may mark as many features as needed for downgrading or removal.

Five (5) non-probationary clan members must visit the citadel every week. In the citadel interface, if an insufficient number of members have visited for upkeep, the number is displayed in red. If a sufficient number of members have visited for upkeep, but not a stronghold upgrade, the number is displayed in yellow. If a sufficient number of members have visited for a stronghold upgrade, the number is displayed in green.

Citadel Tier

Members needed to visit

Upkeep(current tier)

Upgrade(to next tier)

1

5

7

2

5

10

3

5

15

4

5

20

5

5

25

6

5

30

7

5

--

A dilapidated Clan Citadel.

If, at tier one, not enough clan members visit the citadel in a week, it becomes locked. No one may enter the citadel until five non-probationary clan members re-open it by attempting to visit it. Upon reopening, the citadel will be in a dilapidated state, with only a dilapidated tier one woodcutting plot, but the avatar habitat and other cosmetic upgrades from before the locking will be preserved. Note that the avatar habitats aren't available during dilapidated times, but will be available as soon as the regular citadel state has been restored.

If an insufficient number of clan members visit in the week for upkeep, then upon the build tick buildings become dilapidated. Dilapidation causes the clan's colours to be removed from the wall and the skill plots to function at a lower level. In addition, any resources that may have been allocated to upgrade jobs or customisations go instead into the storehouse and are subject to spoilage upon the build tick, as if the jobs did not exist. Any payments made in previous weeks for those jobs are not lost, and the jobs themselves are not cancelled. If another build tick goes by and not enough members visit the citadel, it downgrades by one tier and remains dilapidated. Any citadel features, such as skill plots, that require the higher tier are removed. The only exception is a Tier 1 Tree, which never dilapidates.

If an insufficient number of clan members visit in the week for a stronghold upgrade, then resources are not applied to any stronghold upgrade job. They can still be applied to other jobs, such as other upgrades or customisations, that can use those resources. If there are no other jobs that can use them, then the resources go instead into the storehouse and are subject to spoilage upon the build tick, as if the stronghold upgrade job did not exist. Any payments made in previous weeks for a stronghold upgrade are not lost, and the job itself is not cancelled.

To build new structures, there must be enough resources in the pool to pay for upkeep. Every week, the clan may do one each of the following:

Upgrade the keep (Main building) and

Upgrade either the storehouse or the battlefield and

Build or upgrade two skill plots and

Change three customisations

To upgrade, select it from the building interface, and click the upgrade arrow. This shows the costs to upgrade, and if there are enough resources and a build slot, the upgrade button will be lit. Clicking it will mark it for building during the next tick. Structures may not be upgraded beyond the citadel tier, and each structure can only be upgraded one tier per tick.

Customisations are also changed upon the build tick. Like structures, there must be enough resources to pay upkeep before they can be paid for. Custom features can be changed, but not downgraded. They are added by talking to Artisan, but can be requested in the interface.

To build the feature, you must select the hotspot to put it in. If there is already a feature there, it will be replaced by the new feature. In the interface, red dots show hotspots without custom features; green dots show the hotspots that already have features, and brown dots show the hotspots that are already marked for a new feature.

When a spot is chosen and clicked on, it will show the options for building, showing the resources needed. When the next tick comes, after upkeep is paid, the custom features will go into effect.

The build priority list shows all downgrade, upkeep and upgrade costs, and which of those can be paid with the current resources. From this location, the jobs' priorities can be reordered or deleted if the player has the permissions.

Skill plots are where clans obtain resources to be able to maintain and upgrade the citadel and its buildings. Working on a skill plot has no level or tool requirement, but the higher the relevant level, the more experience gained per action (e.g. a level 99 woodcutter will get more experience per root cut than a level 70 woodcutter, and so on). The experience rate at the skill plots is often slower than a comparable activity on the surface, but if one may have a low level in Cooking, for example, training at the skill plot would provide excellent experience. As of 6 March 2012, it is now possible to receive strange rocks from skill plots.

Upon creation of the citadel, only one plot will be active - a tier-1 woodcutting plot. Upgrading the skill plots require resources, and increases the efficiency of the plot. Upgrading the citadel itself also costs resources - substantially more than skill plots - but provides more obvious benefits like extra skill plots and decoration hotspots.

Upgrading the citadel also unlocks extra skill plots so that other materials can be gathered or processed.

The woodcutting plot is an enchanted Hornbeam tree, of which the roots can be cut for timber for the citadel. A hatchet is not required for this. Timber is either used directly as an upkeep or upgrade resource. Timber is not used to make charcoal.

The mining rock is a large rock with multiple veins or resources - stone (grey vein), ore (silver vein) and precious ore (gold vein) - for the citadel. A pickaxe is not required for this. Stone is used as an upkeep/upgrade resource, however ore and precious ore are not directly used in the citadel - they require processing (into metal bars and precious bars) before they can be used.

The firemaking plot takes the shape of a charcoal kiln. By shovelling wood (doesn't require/use up any timber that your clan has chopped) into the kiln, charcoal is produced. Charcoal is not directly used in the citadel - it is used to fuel the furnace in the smithing plot.

Upgrading the plot provides more kilns and generates charcoal at a higher rate. All kilns need to be full for charcoal to be produced.

The summoning plot is a large obelisk with several smaller obelisks, and is used to summon minions. It can be 'bought' for the citadel at Tier 5. Several of the smaller obelisks need to be interacted with in order for a minion to be summoned at the large obelisk.

Minions are not required for any specific task in the citadel - instead, they count as any resource where needed.

Players can only use one tenth of their resource cap at the summoning plot (see storehouse below).

Clan members can claim Bonus experience in any skill for which the citadel has a skill plot by talking to the Quartermaster after collecting resources 500 times from most skill plots. This amount is fewer than 500 mouse clicks, since players collect resources multiple times per mouse click. The amount of resources received by 500 collections is dependent on the type of plot, the tier of the plot, and the player's skill level. To gain access to the Quartermaster, players must have a sufficiently high rank to enter the keep (inner set of doors).

The number of collections is not the number of resources. Players often collect more than 1.00 resources at a time (multiple resources per collection, and multiple collections per mouse click). Also, because of the cap on the obelisk, it is impossible to collect 500 times at the obelisk. The values below for the obelisk are hypothetical projections for comparison.

^7 from each ore trough, 9 from the mould, 5 from the water (7 average)

The bonus experience is credited toward a 100% experience boost while skilling anywhere (including at citadel skill plots). If they have gathered resources enough times, players get a message to talk to the Quartermaster to claim the experience. The amount is dependent on the player's level and the tier of the plot. The higher each is, the more experience players get.

If a player reaches the threshold to claim the skilling bonus experience, they gain a rank of fealty (in the next tick) up to a maximum of 3. Each rank of fealty gives 15% extra experience when skilling in the citadel, for a maximum of 45% extra experience. This does not change the amount of resources gained per collection, just the experience. If players do not reach the threshold, their fealty will drop a rank (in the next tick).

Changes in fealty are applied when the player first enters the citadel after a build tick. If, in the previous tick that they entered the citadel, they reached the bonus experience threshold, their fealty is increased by 1 rank (or remains at 3). If, in the previous tick that they entered the citadel, they did not reach that threshold, their fealty drops by 1 rank (or remains at 0). Fealty updates based on the last tick in which they entered the citadel, which does not have to be the directly previous tick - if a player reaches the threshold in the citadel, and then goes an extended period of time (e.g. 6 months or more) without entering the citadel at all, and their fealty will be increased by 1 when they next enter.

The clan cloak does not need to be worn to gain the additional experience.

Rank 3 fealty unlocks an additional reward of direct experience, granted by the Fealty-Reward option of a clan cloak. This can be applied to any skill (even skills not represented in the citadel), scales with the level of the skill, and can be claimed each build tick where the player has fealty 3. It grants the same experience as the Jack of trades aura reward book. In order to claim this reward, the citadel must be entered in the build tick (so that fealty updates occur).

The storehouse is where resources are stored during the build tick. All citadels start with a tier 1 storehouse. Upgrading the storehouse both increases the individual resource cap of every player, so that they can gather more items per build tick, and increases the amount of resources that are carried over to the next build cycle.

Citadel information screen showing the amount of resources that have been gathered by the clan and by the player

Every player has a resource cap, limiting the amount of resource that they can gather in the citadel. The resource cap applies to all resources, not to each individually - a player could use their entire resource cap gathering timber, or they could use some of it gathering timber, some making charcoal, some mining some ore and some making bars. This ensures that if a clan wants their citadel to reach its very best, all the members must work together. The resource cap is reset every build tick.

Interface showing the fealty, and resource amount the member has reached.

The individual resource cap is increased by upgrading the storehouse. While in the citadel the current resource cap, and amount currently used, is displayed at the bottom of the citadel information screen. Clan members can see how much each person has gathered if they have been granted the privilege and are on the same world. The information screen is accessible through the Clan tab by clicking on the yellow arrow to the right of clanmates' names.

There was a glitch previously wherein when people would gain the resource maximum cap, it would be reset back to 0. The resources they had already gathered still counted towards the clan's total and were still usable. This was able to happen more than once per building tick. It is currently unknown how or why this glitch occured.

When the build tick occurs, most resources that are left over will spoil and be lost. The amount that is carried forward is the lower of the maximum percentage of resources or the maximum capacity of that tier of storehouse (see table in previous section).

For example, if a clan has a tier 1 storehouse (maximum capacity of 1,000) and they have 10,000 surplus wood, they keep the lower of 1,000 or (5% of 10,000) 500 wood. Similarly, if a clan has a tier 7 storehouse (maximum capacity of 3,000) and they have 10,000 surplus wood, they are only able to keep 3,000 despite 50% of 10,000 being 5,000.

The following resources are subject to the above percentages and caps:

Clanmates and visitors are welcomed to the citadel inside the welcome area. Avalani will give players a handbook about the citadels if asked for them. There is a meeting room inside the tent, which can be set to public or private.

The signpost can be used by clan members to mark other clans as friends or enemies. To set up a relationship with another clan, search for the clan and modify the status of their relationship. If the other clan has a citadel, an icon will appear to teleport to their citadel.

The keep is the central structure of your citadel. In it, clan members can hold meetings and celebrations in a large senate room surrounding a central podium. Within it is the head guard, the quartermaster, and (at higher tiers) a prayer altar (the closest one to a bank).

From tier three and above, a party room can be found in the keep. There is a dancefloor, places to sit, and a lever which will drop balloons (with party items such as fireworks and confetti). Unlike the Falador Party Room, it cannot be used for drop parties.

10 visitors can enter the small meeting rooms and tents. Meetings can be set to public or private; public meetings allow any clanmate to enter and talk, while private areas restrict access.

The first member to set up the private meeting will be able to decide which ranks enter, although they may not restrict access to those with higher ranks than themselves. There is also a ballot box where clan members may vote. If all clan members leave, the meeting will end.

The player who started the meeting may invite others to it, using the master invitation which expires after 15 minutes. To invite them, use the master invitation on them, and they will receive a meeting invitation, used to access the meeting. While any number of players may be invited to the meeting, only ten may be inside at any given time. These players do not have to be members of the clan, but they must have membership.

The senate is a place for big public meetings, with rows of benches and a podium for a speaker. Players may come and go as they wish.

There are two locations with a bank. The cape box at the battlefield is a bank chest, and the head guard in the keep is a banker. The head guard is the closest banker to a prayer altar. The cape box requires a right-click to access its bank function.

Battlefields are safe. If players die during a match, they will not lose anything. They can be accessed by speaking with the Battlemaster. He will let players with the appropriate permissions edit, initiate and enter battles. Beside the Battlefield there is the crate of capes that players may search to find a Battlefield cape, Players may also use the crate of capes to access their Bank and collect the items from the Grand Exchange offers. The bank is particularly useful for players who are going to use the Battlefield or who are gathering for events in their citadel.

Using the Clan Settings interface, clan members with the appropriate permissions may ban lower ranking clan members from the citadel entirely (or just certain parts of it). Players that are banned from the citadel will have a three-minute warning before they are kicked out.

Clan members ranked admin or above can use the permissions tab to set which ranks can do what within the citadel. A list of the permissions available and what they do can be found here.

Clan administrators can also set whether or not guests may enter the clan citadel (and what they can do within the citadel) using the settings tab. Note that any player on the clan ban list will be unable to enter the citadel regardless of this setting.

Following an update on 13 April 2015, clans may choose to make public messages within the citadel visible to everyone else within the citadel (by default, public messages are only visible to players within 8 tiles of them). This option can only be toggled by the clan owner, who can do so by speaking to the Head Guard. Toggling the setting may only be done once per day, and will cause everyone to be removed from the citadel.

Note that if chat is made global within the citadel, people on the island will be able to see messages from people within the clan keep, so care should be taken if the keep is used for clan meetings.

While the weekly resource cap stops the clan citadel from being an efficient long-term training strategy, it can be a good alternative to some other conventional forms of training. The experience rate grows with each tier, and adds 15% up to 45% bonus for fealty. As well as offering bonus experience in any skill for which there is a skill plot. There is no competition for stations as each resource is available independently for each player, and it offers a way to train skills, such as summoning or smithing, without having to spend money (or using charms, in the case of summoning). Gathering resources for your clan is also a semi-afk activity; it may not be the highest experience rate available (the rate for crafting can be high, whereas for summoning it is low), but it can provide a welcome break from routine grinding.

All worlds associated with the Clan Citadel are worlds 173+. They do not appear in the Lobby screen. You must enter your Citadel from another world to be switched to one of these worlds, and all members of a clan will be brought into the same world as one another when they enter the Citadel. Clan Citadel worlds are all Pay-to-play.

At the release of the Clan Citadels, there was a bug that you and your clanmates may not be in the same "citadel world".

The Clan Citadel was the first location in RuneScape to feature skyboxes, even though the RuneTek 5 engine made skyboxes possible in September 2009.

During the first few days of the release of clan citadels it was possible to gain combat experience in the battlefield. This led to fast gains in combat experience since players could use the stats power-up to restore the special attack bar and life points almost instantly. It was possible to earn over 600K xp an hour. This is now patched.

On the RuneScape homepage in the picture of the Citadels at the top, you can click on the bottom of the cliff with a waterfall, making part of the rock fall off, or on the far right of the citadel, which makes five birds fly away. This background was removed with the release of the RuneFest 2011 background.

If a player tries to teleport from the Clan Citadel they will receive a message in the chatbox saying "You cannot teleport from an instance shard world".

As of 6 March 2012, it is now possible to receive strange rocks by training in the skill plots.

When you leave a clan while in the Clan Citadel, you are still able to walk through the Citadel, although nothing in the citadel will work. When trying to claim your bonus experience, it will come up with this message "Your clan profile data is not available at the moment, please try again later."

You keep all your items upon death in the citadel.

After the update on 19 June 2012, all vexilla were changed to default colours. Clan cloaks were also affected, and all clan citadels appeared to cease to exist.

In the days following the release of the f2p fly-through of citadels, there was a glitch allowing a player to be constantly dancing by spam clicking during the dancing scene.